In a lengthy art­icle Fri­day, Wash­ing­ton Post journ­al­ist Bar­ton Gell­man at­temp­ted to an­swer some ques­tions that have sur­faced since he re­por­ted last week on a new Snowden leak. Bur­ied deep in the re­port is a two-para­graph gem that says the CIA’s Twit­ter, while funny, is also propagat­ing mis­in­form­a­tion.

The CIA opened a Twit­ter ac­count last month and has used cheeky hu­mor to win a large fol­low­ing in a short time. On Monday, the ac­count sent out this an­nounce­ment: “No, we don’t know your pass­word, so we can’t send it to you.” It went vir­al, with more than 12,000 retweets.

As it hap­pens, the [Na­tion­al Se­cur­ity Agency] files we ex­amined in­cluded 1,152 “min­im­ized U.S. pass­words,” mean­ing pass­words to Amer­ic­an e-mail and chat ac­counts in­ter­cep­ted from U.S. data links. Don’t ex­pect tech sup­port from Langley, but the CIA does have ac­cess to that raw traffic.

Those num­bers come from a batch of 160,000 in­ter­cep­ted com­mu­nic­a­tions provided by Snowden, a tiny sample of the In­ter­net data the NSA routinely col­lects. U.S. com­mu­nic­a­tions that are in­cid­ent­ally col­lec­ted dur­ing sur­veil­lance of a for­eign tar­get are re­quired to be “min­im­ized,” mean­ing there are lim­its to how they can be searched. But such searches are not for­bid­den, and, Gell­man notes, agen­cies can dis­trib­ute U.S. iden­tit­ies in re­ports to one an­oth­er.

Gell­man’s big NSA ex­posé last week claimed that the vast ma­jor­ity of In­ter­net ac­counts mon­itored by U.S. in­tel­li­gence agen­cies do not be­long to over­seas tar­gets, but in­stead to or­din­ary In­ter­net users who com­mu­nic­ate dir­ectly with those tar­gets.

The im­plic­a­tions of Gell­man’s story are pro­found and ser­i­ous, and par­tially re­fute some find­ings in a re­port from the pres­id­ent’s in­de­pend­ent pri­vacy-watch­dog pan­el, which de­clared the NSA’s for­eign sur­veil­lance tech­niques leg­al and ef­fect­ive.

The CIA Twit­ter ac­count’s may be at­tempt­ing to lever­age lev­ity for flex­ib­il­ity with the facts, but that’s un­likely to quell the horde of anti-sur­veil­lance act­iv­ists who claim the in­tel­li­gence com­munity has per­sist­ently been mis­lead­ing and dis­hon­est about the true mag­nitude of its spy pro­grams.

President Obama has called for a "full review" of the hacking that took place during the 2016 election cycle, according to Obama counterterrorism and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco. Intelligence officials say it is highly likely that Russia was behind the hacking. The results are not necessarily going to be made public, but will be shared with members of Congress.

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AT ISSUE: BENEFITS FOR COAL MINERS

Manchin, Brown Holding Up Spending Bill

2 hours ago

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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are threatening to block the spending bill—and prevent the Senate from leaving town—"because it would not extend benefits for retired coal miners for a year or pay for their pension plans. The current version of the bill would extend health benefits for four months. ... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday afternoon moved to end debate on the continuing resolution to fund the government through April 28. But unless Senate Democrats relent, that vote cannot be held until Saturday at 1 a.m. at the earliest, one hour after the current funding measure expires."

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PARLIAMENT VOTED 234-56

South Korean President Impeached

3 hours ago

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The South Korean parliament voted on Friday morning to impeach President Park Geun-hye over charges of corruption, claiming she allowed undue influence to a close confidante of hers. Ms. Park is now suspended as president for 180 days. South Korea's Constitutional Court will hear the case and decide whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.

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CLOSED FOR INAUGURAL ACTIVITIES

NPS: Women’s March Can’t Use Lincoln Memorial

3 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Participants in the women's march on Washington the day after inauguration won't have access to the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service has "filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters."